✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Could Gambling Save Science?

mason.gmu.edu · 15,025 words · saved by 1 readers

The pace of scientific progress may be hindered by the tendency of our academic institutions to reward being popular, rather than being right. A market-based alternative, where scientists more formally "stake their reputation", is presented here. It offers clear incentives to be careful and honest while contributing to a visible, self-consistent consensus on controversial (or routine) scientific questions. In addition, it allows funders to choose questions to be researched without choosing people or methods. The bulk of this paper is spent examining potential problems with the proposed approach. After this examination, the idea still seems plausible and worth further study.

Could Gambling Save Science? To appear: Proc. Eighth Intl. Conf. on Risk and Gambling, London, July 1990 Could Gambling Save Science Encouraging an Honest Consensus by Robin Hanson Visiting Researcher, The Foresight Institute P.O. Box 61058, Palo Alto, CA 94306 USA hanson@charon.arc.nasa.gov 415-651-7483 The pace of scientific progress may be hindered by the tendency of our academic institutions to reward being popular, rather than being right. A market-based alternative, where scientists more formally "stake their reputation", is presented here. It offers clear incentives to be careful and ho

Explore this link on the map →

saved by

related reading